lots of new DAC coming out in a rush because of the AKM fire.
anyone heard what AKM is going to do? rebuild and come back I hope!
Luxury and Precision released the W1 and W2 usb dac-amps. The W1 has one CS43198 and the W2 has two of those. Both does have a 4.4mm Balanced out and 3.5mm se.
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Interested to see what they improved about the Thieaudio L3.
I see they changed the connector type. If they solved the unit variation thing and I’m guaranteed the version BGGAR and many others love then that’s a guaranteed buy.
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Now this is interesting to me. I have the Lotoo PAW S1 and I love it. If this is a direct upgrade I might have to consider it. Also has SPDIF out which is interesting. I’ll keep an eye on it.
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Holo Audio Serene - preamp
No new dac hp amp news yet.
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That someone is me, thanks for sharing it here 
I just posted an update on /r/headphones, I added an IEMs category with an initial selection of 60~ earphones, as well as a ton of other improvements as a result of feedback on the initial Reddit thread.
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I improved that functionality a couple of days ago. You’d be surprised how useful those 3 bars can be as a filter option. Of course headphone detail pages include frequency response graphs.
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Hey I’m curious, where do you get the graphs information? Do you measure all those head gears yourself?
Limited edition of Empyrean
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The damn things cost more then my truck!
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I use the AutoEQ project on github, it aggregates measurements from oratory1990, crinacle and others.
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Holy. Shit.
I think some people will consider leaving their wives after seeing this one.
Wow.
And we wonder why this hobby is a sausage fest…
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Tbh I think that this edition of the Empyrean is more of an art statement than a headphone. So I guess you can look at it from that perspective instead of the usual headphone perspective where you would consider price-to-performance ratio.
Art has its price tag 
LOL…
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And give up 1/2 of your net worth? I’ll keep the wife and continue settling for chi-fi 
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I don’t think Meze is trying to sell these to you. Just like the luxury automotive or watch manufacturers aren’t trying to sell the average customer their products. They have their target audience.
I personally believe that no person should be starving for a piece of audio gear. Whether paying half of your net worth for a product is worth it, that’s up to you to decide — it depends how much it means to you and what the intention is. If you are somebody for whom listening to music means a lot and you really care about the quality of sound, you will probably invest more money in a piece of audio gear. Whether it is mental health or zen that audio gear provides you, you really might invest more or less money than other people. Some people are just technology enthusiasts and will buy products that satisfy their curiosity. A lot of different people with a lot of different intentions.
Due to the fact that only ~100 of these will be manufactured worldwide, there is a certain value it holds — just like art holds it value. Many of the art investors don’t buy the art pieces because they like them, instead they buy them as investments. Something that you invest your money into, and after a certain amount of time, you will either get back the invested amount, or in the ideal situation: you will profit.
I think that there are many people in this hobby that start wars with those who like finer things just because of the lack of general understanding of the manufacturer’s target audience. Everybody is looking for something different, people don’t always see the performance or value as the #1 factor that will decide whether or not they will buy that thing.
Would I pay this amount for a headphone? Absolutely not.
Do I understand who this is targeted towards and who the average buyer of these is? Yes.
I respect both sides at the end of the day, but for me it is crucial to understand both sides just so I don’t get in pointless arguments. There would be much more peace if more people could understand both sides and not put other people in their shoes… even though they are in completely different shoes than them.
As always, I get into a rant… oops.
My giving up “1/2 of your net worth” comment was in response to your comment about leaving your wife (i.e. the cost of divorce), not the cost of the headphones.
I agree that the majority of luxury items are not marketed to the masses. Personally, I could care less that there are $3500 headphones out there.
I hope they sound awesome and for those that buy them I hope that they thoroughly enjoy them.
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My bad! I misunderstood, but my point still stands for those who get upset by higher priced products.
I have to agree on this. We all have a different way of spending our money, some have more, some have less. Some have less and spend more. Some have more and spend less. There are all kinds of people out there, we are all different.
As far as audio goes, I can be happy with the iBasso SR2 or the Sennheiser HD598. I don’t have need for anything more, but I sure as hell appreciate the higher-end manufacturers that try to push the boundaries.
Again, my apologies for misunderstanding you. I just wish more people could be happy about each others enjoyment in this hobby. We can be happy with the chi-fi, but I really hope that we can also be happy for those who enjoy the luxury stuff.
Just being on forums, you see how much arguing and disagreement there is. People spend more time arguing about cables than listening and enjoying music.
I just wish there was more peace =)
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